When and why does sense of power hinder self-reported helping behavior? Testing a moderated mediation model in Chinese undergraduates

Many studies on power and its influence on pro-social behavior have been conducted with Western samples. Little is known about whether the relevant research findings can be extended to other cultural settings. This study investigates the relationship between sense of power and self-reported helping behavior in Chinese culture. Using a sample of 388 undergraduate students, this study examines a moderated mediation model in which moral identity serves as a moderator and perspective taking serves as a mediator. The results show that sense of power is negatively associated with helping behavior, and this association is mediated by perspective taking. That is, sense of power exerts a negative effect on perspective taking, thereby decreasing people's tendency to help others. In addition, moral identity moderates the direct and indirect effect from sense of power to helping behavior. Specifically, when moral identity is low, sense of power exerts negative effects on perspective taking and helping behavior, but these effects become non-significant when moral identity is high. This study sheds new light on the understanding of sense of power by examining its profound role in influencing pro-social engagement in Eastern cultures. Our findings suggest that powerful people with lower levels of moral identity may be less willing to consider others' thoughts and feelings, and act less helping behavior. While high moral identity may buffer the negative effect of sense of power and enable powerful people to better play a role in promoting social harmony.     

Procedural fairness predicts cooperative behaviour for high-self-esteem individuals but not for low-self-esteem individuals

Cooperation is vital for modern society. Previous studies showed that procedural fairness promotes cooperation; however, they mainly focused on cooperation intention, which may fail to reveal actual cooperative behaviour. Moreover, little is known regarding the personality boundary of the effect of procedural fairness on cooperation. Guided by previous findings that self-esteem increases sensitivity to procedural unfairness, we attempted to explore the moderating effect of self-esteem on the association between procedural fairness and cooperative behaviour. In Experiment 1, 160 participants' self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale; procedural fairness was manipulated in two conditions, depending on whether money was allocated in an economic game by rolling the dice twice or an allocator's arbitrary choice. Cooperative behaviour was assessed using the chicken game paradigm. Experiment 2 (148 participants) aimed to replicate and extend the results of Experiment 1 using a more rigorous experimental design, in which the possible effect of outcome favourability was excluded. The results of both experiments consistently showed that procedural fairness positively predicted cooperative behaviour, and this association was significant in high-self-esteem individuals, but not in low-self-esteem individuals. These findings shed light on the vital role of self-esteem in understanding the relationship between procedural fairness and cooperative behaviour.     

Effect of Quality Characteristics of Peer Raters on Rating Errors in Peer Assessment

Little research has been done on the effects of peer raters’ quality characteristics on peer rating qualities. This study aims to address this gap and investigate the effects of key variables related to peer raters’ qualities, including content knowledge, previous rating experience, training on rating tasks, and rating motivation. In an experiment where training and motivation interventions were manipulated, 24 classes with 838 high school students were randomly assigned to study conditions. Inter-rater error, intra-rater error and criterion error indices for peer ratings on four selected essays were analyzed using hierarchical linear models. Results indicated that peer raters’ content knowledge, previous rating experience, and rating motivation were associated with rating errors. This study also found some significant interactions between peer raters’ quality characteristics. Implications for in-person and online peer assessments as well as future directions are discussed.     

Illness representations,pain and physical function in patients with rheumatic disorders: between- and within-person associations

Objectives: Rehabilitation for patients with rheumatic diseases improves both illness representations (IR) and clinical outcomes such as pain and physical functioning (PF). However, it is unclear whether IR may affect and, in turn, are affected by pain and PF. In this study, we examined both between-person associations and within-person associations between IR and pain/PF over time on three measurement occasions. Furthermore, cross-lagged relationships were examined.

Design and main outcome measures: This secondary analysis is based on data from N?=?186 patients with rheumatic diseases. Data on pain, PF and IR were assessed using self-report questionnaires at the beginning, the end and three months after a 3-week inpatient rehabilitation.

Methods: To separate between- and within-person level, data were analysed using random-intercept cross-lagged panel models.

Results: On both the between-person level (r?=?|0.21|???|0.44|) and the within-person level (r?=?|0.15|???|0.46|), pain and PF were related to cognitive and emotional IR. In addition, we found within-person bidirectional cross-lagged effects between emotional IR and PF.

Conclusion: IR show complex relationships with pain and PF. Improving PF might improve subsequent illness-related emotional distress and vice versa.     

FENGSHUI: SCIENCE,RELIGION, SUPERSTITION,OR TRADE?

Fengshui (also called Chinese geomancy) is a pre-modern tradition rooted in Chinese civilization. Chinese civilization is pre-modern and practice-oriented due to the domination of political power in China. In contrast, Western civilization is modernized. It witnessed the development of religion in ancient times, and the growth of science through reason (logic) and experiment in modern times. It is both rational and transcendental. It seems that Fengshui is an intermediate between science and religion. It is not science although its focus is on this world, for it does not seek knowledge and truth. It is not religion although it is mystical, for it does not seek transcendence and good. It is not only superstition (or magic), but also a mystical trade that centers on secular benefits.     

How do children view and categorise human and dog facial expressions?

Children are often surrounded by other humans and companion animals (e.g., dogs, cats); and understanding facial expressions in all these social partners may be critical to successful social interactions. In an eye-tracking study, we examined how children (4–10 years old) view and label facial expressions in adult humans and dogs. We found that children looked more at dogs than humans, and more at negative than positive or neutral human expressions. Their viewing patterns (Proportion of Viewing Time, PVT) at individual facial regions were also modified by the viewed species and emotion, with the eyes not always being most viewed: this related to positive anticipation when viewing humans, whilst when viewing dogs, the mouth was viewed more or equally compared to the eyes for all emotions. We further found that children's labelling (Emotion Categorisation Accuracy, ECA) was better for the perceived valence than for emotion category, with positive human expressions easier than both positive and negative dog expressions. They performed poorly when asked to freely label facial expressions, but performed better for human than dog expressions. Finally, we found some effects of age, sex, and other factors (e.g., experience with dogs) on both PVT and ECA. Our study shows that children have a different gaze pattern and identification accuracy compared to adults, for viewing faces of human adults and dogs. We suggest that for recognising human (own-face-type) expressions, familiarity obtained through casual social interactions may be sufficient; but for recognising dog (other-face-type) expressions, explicit training may be required to develop competence.

Highlights

• We conducted an eye-tracking experiment to investigate how children view and categorise facial expressions in adult humans and dogs
• Children's viewing patterns were significantly dependent upon the facial region, species, and emotion viewed
• Children's categorisation also varied with the species and emotion viewed, with better performance for valence than emotion categories
• Own-face-types (adult humans) are easier than other-face-types (dogs) for children, and casual familiarity (e.g., through family dogs) to the latter is not enough to achieve perceptual competence

     

斯里兰卡民族冲突的根源

斯里兰卡独立后,僧伽罗、泰米尔两大民族之间冲突不断发生.两大民族的冲突起源于英国殖民统治时期,佛教革命和一元制体制的建立是其宗教及文化根源,政府政策方针的变化则是其政治原因.     

人力资本对流动人口就业收入的影响——北京微观数据的考察

作为影响就业收入的重要因素,人力资本对流动人口的工资和收入的影响一直以来备受关注,但是对人力资本的衡量以及人力资本各部分对就业收入的影响程度仍存在较大争论.本文利用2006年"北京市1‰流动人口抽样调查"数据,运用改进的明瑟收入模型,以北京市为例分别从教育、健康、培训、迁移四个方面考察人力资本对流动人口就业收入的影响程度以及作用机制,结果表明流动人口的人力资本提升对就业收入具有重要影响,其中教育贡献最为显著,接受培训达到两次以上有正向显著影响,而流动时间过短或过长都不利于收入提高.     

同品、异品蠡测

同品和异品是因明学体系中的两个基本概念,对它们的准确理解是解读九句因和因三相的一把钥匙,是确定新因明论式逻辑性质的前提条件.学术界已经存在的三种相关定义,为人们理解同品和异品提供了程度不同的启示,但均存在尚需完善之处.从内涵角度而言,同品是指具有所立法性质的事物,异品是指不具有所立法性质的事物;从外延角度而言,宗之前陈是否应当属于同品或者异品,在立量之际立敌双方对此意见分歧;但实际上,宗之前陈或者属于同品或者属于异品,二者必居其一,这是因明论式具有自悟和悟他功能之需要.这种视野下的同品和异品,可以解决九句因的归类以及九句因和因三相之间的一致性问题.